Karoline Leavitt’s relative after detained by ICE: ‘When does it stop?’

The mother of Karoline Leavitt’s nephew addressed the White House press secretary in her first TV interview since being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.

“You’re a mother,” Bruna Caroline Ferreira said Friday on CNN. “You are a mother now. And you should know. How would you feel if you were in my shoes? How would you feel if somebody did this to you?”

Ms. Ferreira, 33, was detained last month in Massachusetts for overstaying a tourist visa. She is the mother of Ms. Leavitt’s nephew by way of her brother, Michael Leavitt. The two women have not spoken in years.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson said last month that Ms. Ferreira is a “criminal illegal alien” from Brazil who entered the U.S. on a B-2 Tourist Visa and didn’t leave when it expired in June 1999.

After her detainment, her sister, Graziela Dos Santos Rodrigues, set up a GoFundMe page to aid with legal costs and fight the charges.

The page featured photos of Ms. Ferreira and her son, Michael Leavitt Jr., 11.

Ms. Rodrigues wrote that Ms. Ferreira has been maintaining her status under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program from the Obama administration.

“Bruna was brought to the United States by our parents in December of 1998, when she was just a child, entering on a visa. Since then, she has done everything in her power to build a stable, honest life here. She has maintained her legal status through DACA, followed every requirement, and has always strived to do the right thing,” the page said. “Bruna’s absence has been especially painful for her 11-year-old son, Michael Leavitt Junior, who needs his mother and hopes every single day that she’ll be home in time for the holidays.”

This week, an immigration judge ordered Ms. Ferreira be released from the ICE Processing Center in Louisiana.

Ms. Ferreira said Friday she was detained while on her way to pick up her son. She said the situation “doesn’t make sense.”

“I’m trying to understand and have faith that there’s some logical explanation behind any of this, but there isn’t. I’m not the first. I’m surely not going to be the last,” she told CNN. “There’s thousands of women and families and children being separated daily. Where does it end? When does it stop?”

DHS has said Ms. Ferreira has a criminal history aside from being in the country illegally, but she and her lawyer, Todd Pomerleau, have maintained that’s not true.

“I don’t even have a parking ticket, and I’m so proud of it,” she said.

“I’m proud of my name, and I carry it like a badge of honor,” she said. “And now my child is sitting somewhere watching them broadcast this 24 hours a day, seven days a week. As a child, he must be terrified.”

Mr. Pomerleau said, “The only arrest in her life was this unconstitutional bag job on November the 12th.”